With the advent of permanent press garments, a great demand has been for garments which would have permanently formed creases or pleats such that repeated washings and cleaning of the garments would still allow such crease or pleat retention. A number of methods exist for achieving such pleat formation, but these depend on a number of steps in a different place in a process sequence used in the art for producing these articles of clothing. Thus, processes have been used requiring a full garment production first and then imparting to the finished garment permanent pleats or using a method for forming pleats in an almost completely finished garment. Among these methods is a method requiring the use of machinery that is inserted into a pants leg for forming a permanent pleat by depositing a material on the interior of such garment, which ostensibly provides for such permanent crease. Needless to say, such pleat forming methods are slow and cumbersome.
In considering the prior art methods and the various applications for pleat formation, Applicant is aware of the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,299 granted Oct. 18, 1988 to Coulter;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,170 granted July 12, 1988 to Gibson et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,589 granted Aug. 26, 1986 to Gibson;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,793 granted Mar. 4, 1980 to Gibson et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,264 granted Jan. 8, 1980 to Gibson et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,538 granted June 20, 1978 to Rockerath et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,672 granted Mar. 1, 1977 to Rockerath et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,786 granted Jan. 13, 1976 to Teed;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,877 granted Sept. 23, 1975 to Rockerath et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,312 granted Mar. 18, 1975 to Rockerath et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,579 granted Feb. 4, 1975 to Rockerath et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,435,463 granted Apr. 1, 1969 to A. Jay;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,403 granted Mar. 12, 1968 to N. F. Getchell;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,765 granted Jan. 26, 1965 to N. F. Getchell;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,052,211 granted Sept. 4, 1962 to Shirley et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,893,315 granted July 7, 1959 to Reynolds et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,893,314 granted July 7, 1959 to G. T. Gore;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,524,989 granted Oct. 10, 1950 to W. L. Payne;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,440,573 granted Apr. 27, 1948 to C. Brode;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,279,663 granted Apr. 14, 1942 to R. A. Dillon;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,129,403 granted Sept. 6, 1983 to L. G. Bowman;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,110,644 granted Mar. 8, 1938 to L. G. Bowman;
U.S. Pat. No. 1,816,652 granted July 28, 1931 to K. Nakashian;
U.S. Pat. No. 1,500,570 granted July 8, 1924 to B. J. Bodnar;
U.S. Pat. No. 1,413,885 granted Apr. 25, 1922 to C. A. Anderson;
U.S. Pat. No. 979,780 granted Dec. 27, 1910 to D. Marinsky;
U.S. Pat. No. 874,818 granted Dec. 24, 1907 to A. Abrams;
U.S. Pat. No. 751,741 granted Feb. 9, 1904 to D. Lyons;
U.K. Patent 2,181,368 granted Apr. 23, 1987 to D. W. Spence;
European Patent 0 138 327 granted Apr. 24, 1985 to Gibson.
Among these patents, it is noted that a number of patents disclose application tools for dispersing a curable polymer in the crease, either before the full garment assembly or thereafter, such that a permanently formed crease or pleat is evident.
In all of the prior art, the industrial side of the production has not been addressed in a manner which would allow the formation of the crease or pleat to be carried out before the sewing of the garment components and before the final assembly of the garment.